March 2, 2010
from the comments
I have a long list — I’m very much a place-oriented girl, I suppose. I still miss the original Sears Roebuck stores (particularly those of El Paso and Dallas). They had a particular light and smell that I want back. I’m about to cry thinking of old 5 & Dime stores–Winn’s in El Paso, M.E. Moses in Dallas. They sold live birds and oilcloth and hairnets and chocolate covered cherries and fake diamond rings. They always had the best linoleum floors. I miss the old Eckerd drugstore that was just around the corner from where we live now. It was dingy and cramped, and I loved it. Oh, and Kress in downtown El Paso! It had the best counter bar in the world. As a small child I got knocked down the stairs there by a woman who exited through an entrance door.
I would drive 200 miles to revisit any of the places above.
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The ‘particular smell’ I recall is that of every Woolworth’s I ever was in. I don’t exactly miss it, but I’d certainly recognize it.
Dime stores were great. Dollar stores are okay, but they do not hold a candle.
At the M.E. Moses near my house in Dallas, you could buy little turtles with floral designs painted on their backs. The paint could not have been good for the turtles, by whom I was fascinated and vaguely disturbed.
You could also buy tiny bottles of Blue Waltz toilet water (which I did not) and all of that fabulous Yardley make-up (which I did).
Yes, and for the tiny turtles one could purchase a very nice little ecosystem reminiscent of Bali Hai.
I liked the giant decals. The seasonal ones always reminded me of tired old school teachers.
Crepe paper. Those odd honeycomb paper decorations that are sold flat and fan out into three dimensions.
But mostly talcum powder and sad bottles of cheap cologne.
Dime stores. The Xanadus of tired old schoolteachers.
Gauzy ‘chiffon’ headscarves. Spoolies and bobby pins and hair nets.
oh deargawdamighty, someone mentions the old Kress store in downtown EPTx and memories come flooding back when yourstruly worked (we be talkin’ bout ’69, ’70, ’71) after school in the Mayfair Men’s store two blocks away and would often visit the Kress for a late lunch of ‘un mexicano” (hot dog rolled up in heated flour tortilla wth chili and cheese) and cold Pepsi, occasional forays to the Popular Dept Store’s restaurant located on the mezzanine for some of the best ice cream soda one could ever enjoy, or some BBQ at Saul’s Bar-B-Que; all long gone w/downtown EPTx just an extension of Juarez over the bridge now…
hijole, hermanita, gracias para esas memorias….
Semi-related: Non-news on the SA Kress building –
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/downtown/2010/02/kress-building.html
Oh, juju pongo. The Popular. The White House. The alligators in San Jacinto Plaza. The old blue city buses.
Shit, my mascara is ruint all to hell.
De nada, mi hermana. Y gracias a usted.
The Ben Franklin in downtown South Haven, Michigan circa 1963.
Dime stores only count if they have those creaky, stained, foot-polished floors made from narrow strips of hardwood.
I bought my comics at the drug store and my make-up at the dime store. Ain’t the USA grand?
We went to the ME Moses in Dallas (Pleasant Grove) every Saturday for a dollar toy; The play make-up kits, doctor/nurse kits with licorice pills, fake rings, slip and slides, candy/popcorn counter, “Evening In Paris” perfume.
I worked there when I was in school, met my first boyfriend there! I would give anything to go in there once more.
I also worked at M E Moses in Pleasant Grove. Remember the school supply aisle and Mrs. Mac? You could buy a bike or a fish. In fact I have a set of dishes bought from there in 1974. It would be fun to spend another day working in the toy department or on the front cash registers.
Shit, I’m about to spill it. Thank you. Thank you, all.